If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Emirates Airlines Very Pleased With A380s

ATW Online; Thursday June 02, 2016Emirates President: You can never have enough A380s

Dubai-based Emirates Airline will get its 79th Airbus A380 soon, and two more aircraft are in the pipeline. “That means by the end of next month we have 81 A380s in the fleet,” Emirates president Tim Clark told the Executive Report on the sidelines of the IATA AGM in Dublin.

Clark said if an A380neo was built, he understood it would have bigger winglets, delivering a significant improvement on fuel burn. “If Airbus does not build the A380neo, but will put new, bigger winglets on existing A380s we have on the order book, that would be great,” Clark said.

“However, there are no plans to build bigger winglets for the current A380s.”

Earlier this week at a media event in Hamburg, Airbus president & CEO Fabrice Brégier said, “perhaps it is possible to offer some options regarding bigger, more efficient winglets, but this depends on the business case. The A380 is not an easy program to manage. Each time we need to invest on top of any very reliable aircraft, which is what we have today, we need to look at the return on investments.”

Brégier said market conditions were not yet there to launch a neo variant and “we don’t plan to make any decision.”

Clark said the global economy was flat, but passenger numbers were increasing at a rate of 4%-5%. “But that is not enough to fill the capacity that is coming in,” he noted. “Seat and yield factors are not as strong as they used to be, and the prognosis for me, for the next years, is about the same. But we always manage it; we have had good years, and we have had bad years.”

Asked whether there were too many A380s in the Emirates’ fleet, Clark said, “Oh no, never enough, no way. The A380 is the sweetest thing for us. It is our one unique selling point; this is a marketing advantage.”

Clark said the next new European destination for the Dubai carrier’s A380 will be Nice, France.

Re: Emirates Airlines Very Pleased With A380s

Dubai-based Emirates Airline has begun taking delivery of new generation Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, according to a Nov. 15 statement.

The first new generation A380-388Q was delivered this month as Emirates’ 85th A380. In addition to an onboard lounge and first class shower spa, the A380-388Q will have several new features, including a new seat configuration.

This A380 is the first of seven expected to be delivered this fiscal year, with 51 more of the type on order.

With the relocation of the crew rest area, there will be 25 additional seats in economy class, for a total of 426 seats on the lower deck. First- and business-class seats will remain at 14 and 76, respectively, on the upper deck.

Among the features is a new design in the business-class cabin with a higher ceiling to create a more spacious feel. Overhead cabin lockers will be concentrated in the middle aisles and will be 28% larger.

The next generation A380s are expected to serve more ultra long-haul routes. “The A380 is the sweetest thing for us. It is our one unique selling point; this is a marketing advantage,” Emirates president Tim Clark told ATW recently.

Emirates has retired its last Airbus A330-200 and A340-300, becoming an all-Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 operator for passenger flights. It is currently the largest A380 and 777 operator, with 85 A380-800s and 160 777s (which includes -200LR, -300, -300ER and 777F variants) in its fleet.

Re: Emirates Airlines Very Pleased With A380s

Emirates Airline, which saw a steep drop in profit in its latest financials, is deferring delivery of six Airbus A380s from 2017 to 2018 and postponing delivery of another six A380s from 2018 to 2019.

Airbus announced the delivery deferrals in a press release Dec. 27, saying that agreements had been reached between Emirates and Rolls-Royce and between Emirates and Airbus.

In November, Dubai-based Emirates posted its financials for the first half of its 2016-27 financial year and showed a net profit that was 75% down from the year ago period to AED786 million ($214 million). Revenue for the period was down 1% to AED41.9 billion.

The airline said the figures reflected increased market competition that resulted in lower fares, together with unfavorable currency movements because of the strength of the dollar. Additional adverse factors included weaker demand as a result of a subdued economic landscape and security fears that had dissuaded some people from traveling.

Airbus, in its statement on the aircraft deferrals, also re-confirmed its target to deliver around 12 A380s per year from 2018 and said cost reduction initiatives “will be accelerated” so the impact on A380 break-even in 2017 “will be minimal”.

The Toulouse-based aircraft manufacturer stated in July that it would cut A380 production to 12 aircraft from 2018, more than halving the production rate of the double-deck very large aircraft from 2.5 per month to one.

Emirates is beginning to take delivery of the first of its Rolls Trent 900-powered A380s, but said earlier in December that it had encountered a last-minute “technical glitch” with the engine.

The initial 90 A380s ordered by Emirates – most of which have been delivered – are powered by Engine Alliance GP7000s, an engine produced under a GE Aviation/Pratt & Whitney joint venture. Rolls, however, secured the contract to power Emirates follow-on batch of 50 A380s.

By: Karen Walker

Economic downturn and increased security concerns are taking their toll.